Retrospective templates

Q: Which retrospective template should I use?

Start/Stop/Continue if you are unsure — it is concrete and action-shaped from the first card. Switch to Mad/Sad/Glad after a difficult sprint, and to Sailboat when the team is quiet or you want to surface risk.

Q: Should you use the same retrospective format every time?

No. A format the team can predict gets predictable answers, because people start writing to the shape of the columns rather than thinking about the sprint. Rotating every few sprints is usually enough.

Q: What is the Sailboat retrospective?

A metaphor format: wind is what pushes the team forward, anchors are what holds it back, rocks are risks ahead, and the island is the goal. The indirection helps quieter teams raise risk without it feeling like criticism.

A template is just the question you ask. Ask the same one every sprint and people start writing to the shape of the columns rather than thinking about what happened.

The six formats

Start / Stop / Continue

The reliable default. Concrete and action-shaped from the first card.

Columns: Start · Stop · Continue

Best for: Teams new to retros, or any sprint where you want practical output fast.

Mad / Sad / Glad

Surfaces how the sprint felt, not just what shipped.

Columns: Mad · Sad · Glad

Best for: After a hard sprint, or when the team seems flat and you suspect morale.

4Ls

Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For — balances praise with gaps.

Columns: Liked · Learned · Lacked · Longed For

Best for: End of a project or milestone, where learning matters as much as delivery.

Sailboat

A metaphor that gets quieter teams talking about risk.

Columns: Wind · Anchors · Rocks · Island

Best for: Forward-looking sessions, or teams who find direct criticism awkward.

Starfish

Five degrees of change instead of a binary keep-or-kill.

Columns: Keep Doing · More Of · Less Of · Start Doing · Stop Doing

Best for: Mature teams tuning practices they mostly already like.

DAKI

Drop, Add, Keep, Improve — crisp and quick.

Columns: Drop · Add · Keep · Improve

Best for: Short retros, or a team that already knows what it wants to talk about.

How to choose

Unsure? Start/Stop/Continue. It is the reliable default because every card already points at an action.
After a hard sprint. Mad/Sad/Glad. When something went badly, how it felt is the data, and a purely mechanical format talks past it.
After a long or exploratory piece of work. 4Ls. "Learned" and "Lacked" give people somewhere to put the things that were not simply good or bad.
When the room is quiet. Sailboat. The metaphor gives people a way to name a risk without it sounding like an accusation.
When everything is "fine". Starfish. Five degrees of change — more of, less of, keep, start, stop — instead of a binary that flattens into nothing.
Short on time. DAKI. Drop, Add, Keep, Improve. Crisp, and hard to be vague in.

The template is not the hard part. A perfect format still produces nothing if the team discusses every card, agrees eight actions, and never mentions them again. The structure around the format is what decides whether anything changes.

Common questions

Which retrospective template should I use?

Start/Stop/Continue if you are unsure. Mad/Sad/Glad after a difficult sprint, Sailboat when the team is quiet or you want to surface risk.

Should you use the same retrospective format every time?

No. A predictable format gets predictable answers. Rotating every few sprints is usually enough.

What is the Sailboat retrospective?

Wind is what pushes the team forward, anchors hold it back, rocks are risks ahead, the island is the goal.

Next: How to run a sprint retrospective — the five phases the format sits inside.

Run it, rather than read about it. Free, and nobody needs an account — share a six-character code and start.

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